10/09/2024
A Month and A Day
I sit here, confined within these walls, counting the days as they slip through my fingers like grains of sand. The world beyond this cell feels distant, almost unreal, yet my mind refuses to rest. A month, and then a day—just fragments of time—but each hour weighs on me as though it’s eternal.
In the stillness of this place, I’ve come to understand something about human resolve. You can cage the body, silence the voice, but the soul—the soul remains untamed. Every moment that passes here strengthens my conviction. They can write my name in their books of judgment, but the truth will not die with me. It will live on in the land, in the Ogoni soil, in the cries of the people who suffer silently.
I think of you often, in moments between the haze of my thoughts. Your face is a beacon in the fog, a reminder of what is beautiful, of what I fight for. I imagine your laugh, your touch, and the life we might have lived had things been different. I write these words not to lament, but to remind you—there is purpose in this struggle, even when it seems so cruelly unfair.
Each day, I hear the sounds outside—cars, voices, laughter, life continuing as though nothing has changed. It makes me wonder: how many more must die before the world awakens to the truth? How much longer will injustice reign in the shadows, cloaked in the illusion of progress and prosperity?
But I am not afraid. I know that even if I am silenced, my voice will echo in the hearts of those who have seen the truth. You cannot bury an idea. You cannot suppress the will of the people. If not today, then tomorrow, the tide will turn, and justice will bloom from the seeds we have sown.
When you think of me, do not think of sorrow. Think of the courage it took to stand firm, to speak when it would have been easier to remain silent. And if you ever find yourself in doubt, remember that love—true love—is not just about tenderness and joy. It is about sacrifice. It is about enduring the harshness of life for the sake of something greater.
So, I sit here, counting my days, but not with despair. I know what I have given, and I know what I have fought for. In a month and a day, whether I walk free or fall, my spirit will remain unbroken.
Hold onto that thought, as I hold onto yours.
